21st Century Smoke: 1.6% Menthol Express Starter Kit Review

Battery life: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Taste: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Draw: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Vapor production: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

21st Century Smoke used to be found in gas stations all over the place.  Some of you are probably more familiar with their other brand: Vapin Plus.  Since the 21st Century Smoke is a cig-a-like, I figured I'd find a way to pursue it and try it out.  I got a free bare bones starter kit in menthol flavor (only paying 99 cents shipping).  That starter kit came with one battery, one wall charger, and two menthol cartridges (1.6% nicotine content).  Outside of the pros and cons detailed in this review, my only other complaint with this starter kit is that there is no USB charger for this e-cig, making it hard to charge your battery on the go.  They made the packaging a somewhat attractive design.2  21st Century Smoke is NOT from the big tobacco industry.  "Cig-alikes" is a term often used by vapers (electronic cigarette and vape device users from beginners to the most advanced) to describe electronic cigarettes that are shaped or somewhat shaped like traditional tobacco cigarettes.

I first tried vaping when cig-alikes were the only electronic cigarette around (now we have eGos and box mods).  Most vapers have gotten into the vaping world with a cig-alike from one brand or another.  I use a Joytech eVic VT as my regular vaping device, but I decided to embark on a journey of trying different cig-alikes out of curiosity and to try and find the one I could use regularly when hitting the bars (or if it's an emergency).

In this review, menthol 1.6% cartridges were the only ones I had.  As I come across more flavors to try out, I'll update this review with those flavors factored in.  As of March 2016, they offer cartridge refills on their website for 2.0% and 2.4% in cherry, regular (tobacco), menthol, blueberry, strawberry, and grape flavors.  The starter kits (like the MarkTen XL), only come in two different cartridge flavor choices: regular (tobacco) and menthol.

The top things e-cig users look for in these devices are battery life, taste/flavor, draw (how much resistance the user is met with in sucking on the thing), and vapor/cloud production.  I found the battery life on the 21st Century Smoke to be good, as it lasts most of the day.  I could vape for about 2/3 of the day on this with medium-heavy use.  I give battery life 4 out of 5 stars.

The taste/flavor of this is less than mediocre, and it's where the 21st Century Smoke falls off the wagon.  The menthol flavor was extremely light.  It appears they wimped out on the flavor when these cartridges were manufactured.  Even a menthol ultra light smoker would complain that the flavor is lacking with these cartridges.  Another problem is that before you're even half-way through the cartridge, the flavor gets worse.  It begins to taste burnt (even though there is plenty of juice left in the cartridge.  One you get to the burnt taste, it just becomes useless, since no one wants that.

OVERALL FLAVOR RATING: 1.5 out of 5 stars

The draw, another thing e-cig users look for, is average.  On this one, the draw is even and smooth.  You are met with very little resistance, but it's an easy draw.  21st Century Smoke got this feature right.  To the draw, I give a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Vapor production is another topic not to be ignored in this review.  What I mean by vapor production is how much vapor this produces per average drag.  I've found vapor production from this thing to be okay.  It's very consistent (with very few drags lacking) in production; and vapor production remains pretty even until the last couple of puffs before the battery dies.  I give 4 out of five stars to the vapor production of this device.

Kudos to 21st Century Smoke for great quality with a decent battery life, fantastic draw and vapor production. I don't think anything needs to be changed with that. However, I cannot recommend this one because of the flavor (or lack thereof) and the constant burnt taste before you're even halfway through it.  My overall rating for this product is 2.5 out of 5 stars.